After rocky course on 'Biggest Loser,' Allen mom's ready to run Boston Marathon

What shall it profit a woman if she loses more than 100 pounds
but gains a national reputation as a ruthless schemer, courtesy of
the NBC reality show The Biggest Loser?

Well, if you're Tracey Yukich of Allen, you focus on the
positives, including wearing size 4 instead of 22, and planning to
run in today's Boston Marathon less than a year after collapsing on
a mile run.

Yukich credits her experience on The Biggest Loser with helping
her to reach a profoundly better health and attitude. She's trying
to parlay her affiliation with the show into a part-time career as
a lifestyle consultant.

And while not wanting to bite the hand that taught her not to
feed, she notes that she's a devoted, churchgoing wife and mother
of four - not the villain who evoked vitriol on TV blogs and even
had her mailbox egged.

"I tell people all the time, 'A reality show is not reality,' "
she said. "This is reality."

Yukich means her life in Allen, which includes keeping house for
her husband and children, ages 3 to 14, while also rising well
before dawn to get in 1 &#xbd;-hour workouts at the Cooper
Fitness Center, now featuring her on a billboard.

Dallas audition

A 38-year-old North Carolina native, Yukich has grown used to
telling her story, which includes having been a military wife, a
retail manager at Chuck E. Cheese's, and a high school
majorette.

She recalls weighing 113 pounds when she became pregnant with
her first child, Hannah. She gained 100 pounds before giving
birth.

"I had this perceived notion of, 'You're pregnant. You can eat
whatever you want,' " she said.

For the next dozen years, she would lose weight on fad diets and
gain it back, eating salads in restaurants but privately gorging on
sweets and fast food. And hating herself for doing so.

"I was the well-put-together mom who had all of her kids with
bows in their hair and the cute little bobby socks, but inside I
was killing myself because I never felt good enough," she said.

A tearful moment came when she found herself in the bathroom,
eating cookies and watching the laundry spin. She soon learned of a
Dallas audition for The Biggest Loser, and recalls standing in the
rain for hours before getting picked to come inside.

She would endure about two years of raised and dashed hopes - as
well as repeat interviews and paperwork - before finally being
picked last May for the show's eighth season, which aired last
fall. She left on Mother's Day for California, where she spent
about 10 weeks on a ranch, getting trained and filmed with fellow
contestants.

A shaky start

There was trouble from the start. Carrying about 250 pounds on
her 5-foot-2-inch frame, she collapsed from heatstroke during a
one-mile training run and had to be hospitalized.

The silver lining, Yukich said, was that while recuperating she
came to understand how important it was for her and her family that
she use The Biggest Loser to regain her health. She resolved to get
back to the ranch and stay as long as she could.

The Biggest Loser offers contestants expert advice on exercise
and nutrition in a secluded setting, with the promise of $250,000
for whoever loses the highest percentage of weight. But the show
also is Darwinian, pitting individuals and teams against one
another, and most weeks forcing them to vote to boot someone off
the program.

Yukich notes that when she got back to the show after her
hospital stay, she was like the new kid in school, with alliances
already having formed. Some contestants urged her to go home and
take care of herself, which she believes was their way of trying to
get rid of her.

But Yukich stayed, becoming what fans deridingly call a "game
player" - one who advances his or her own interests at every
turn.

AOL's Inside TV Web site called her the "breakout personality"
of the season and said she polarized all the other contestants with
her "bizarre and fascinating" conduct. When she went on The Jay
Leno Show after getting voted off The Biggest Loser in the eighth
week, he read aloud nasty e-mails about her from fans of the
reality show.

While Yukich describes neighbors and others in Allen as highly
supportive, her mailbox did get egged after one episode. And the
amount and viciousness of Internet postings about her gave her the
blues, temporarily.

"There are a lot of haters out there," she said.

Yukich argues that if all the footage had been aired, she would
have come off looking a lot better. But she doesn't apologize.

"I did everything I had to do to make sure I stayed there," she
said. "I don't have any regrets. I used to live my life that way.
Not anymore."

New perspective

While the taped shows aired, Yukich was actually back in Allen,
hoping to win the $100,000 "at home prize" for the contestant who
loses the highest percentage of weight after having been voted off
by teammates forced to eliminate someone.

Typically, she would arrive by 5:30 a.m. at the Cooper Fitness
Center at McKinney's Craig Ranch, working with trainer Kristin
Johnson. They would often put in two more workouts a day, and
Yukich also consulted with a nutritionist.

Yukich said The Biggest Loser and its star trainers - Bob Harper
and Jillian Michaels - gave her the foundation for change. But she
chokes up while saying how Johnson stuck with her day after day,
and taught her to "change the channel" on negative thinking.

At the live finale of The Biggest Loser, watched by 13.4 million
people according to ratings, Yukich narrowly missed winning the
home prize. But she impressed many, including some of her Internet
critics, by weighing just 132 pounds.

Since then, she's kept her weight between 135 and 140 by
exercising daily and eating mostly fruits and vegetables, with some
fish.

Yukich said she's learned to recognize when stress and other
emotional issues are tempting her to eat unwisely. She preaches a
simple health gospel.

"Good diet and exercise," she said. "That's what's working for
me, and it'll work for anybody."

Helping a charity

Yukich has begun to give fitness and nutrition boot camps with a
fellow cast member from The Biggest Loser. She's under contract
with Towers Watson, a consulting firm, to help motivate clients'
employees to join corporate wellness programs. She also hopes to do
a cookbook.

Of late, Yukich also has run 10Ks and half marathons. She got a
spot in today's elite Boston Marathon as a charity fundraiser, and
will be raising money for Homes for Our Troops, which builds houses
for severely wounded veterans returning from Iraq or
Afghanistan.

Conceding that she'll walk some - maybe a lot - of the marathon,
Yukich insists that just to be part of it will be a thrill.

"It's not about time for me," she said. "It's about crossing the
finish line and saying, 'Wow! Look what's happened in a year!'
"

To post a comment, log into your chosen social network and then add your comment below. Your comments are subject to our Terms of Service and the privacy policy and terms of service of your social network. If you do not want to comment with a social network, please consider writing a letter to the editor.